#OnesToWatchOutFor // ADS on Driving the Data Science Narrative in Africa

Data is the bedrock of innovation, but its value con only be felt from the information data scientists can glean from it, and then act upon.

One of the biggest drive of data science has been modern technology, that has enabled the creation and storage of increasing amounts of information thus data volumes have exploded.

For example, it’s estimated that 90 percent of the data in the world was created in the last two years, where Facebook users upload 10 million photos every hour.

Unfortunately, companies are sitting on a treasure trove of data that is often in databases and data lakes, which mostly untouched.

The wealth of data being collected and stored by these technologies can bring transformative benefits to organizations and societies around the world—but only if we can interpret it. That’s where data science comes in.

Data science reveals trends and produces insights that businesses can use to make better decisions and create more innovative products and services.

Perhaps most importantly, it enables machine learning (ML) models to learn from the vast amounts of data being fed to them, rather than mainly relying upon business analysts to see what they can discover from the data.

Data science is one of the most exciting fields out there today but one of the least explored in Africa.

The last few years have witnessed an explosion in the quantity and variety of data available in Africa, produced either as a by-product of digital services, from sensors or measuring devices, satellites and from many other sources.

A number of practical fields have been transformed by the ability to collect large volumes of data: for example, bioinformatics with the development of high throughput sequencing technology capable of measuring gene expression in cells, or agriculture with the widespread availability of high quality remote sensing data.

For other data sources – such as mobile phone usage records from telecoms operators, which can be used to measure population movement and economic activity – we are just beginning to understand the practical possibilities.

At a time when 1.7 megabytes of data is being generated every second for every person on Earth, it’s crucial to know how to wade through information, and structure, interpret, and present it in a meaningful way.

Spotlight: Zuka on grooming the next generation of Data Scientists

This enormous volume of data, known as big data, has prompted greater demand for skilled data science professionals. The African data centre market size is expected to cross $3 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of over 12% during the forecast period (2020-2025).

With the Big Data numbers growing everyday, there is a demand for data secientist, though the the numbers remain low.

However, one company has decided to wade through the waters and help close the gap through offering data science training. Founded in 2018, Africa Data School is Africa Data School is a practical school that enables you to learn ways in which you can mine, understand, analyze and implement data so as to enable you & your business to have a competitive edge.

The company was founded to help address the data science gap by equipping people with data science skills in Africa. The company also trys to ensure people keep up with emerging technologies like AI, Blockchain and Quantum Computing by providing curricula on the technologies as they evolve.

In our new segment #OnesToWatchOutFor, we caught up with Duncan Muriithi, CEO and Head of Recruitment,  Africa Data School at our Nairobi Garage Kilimani, where he shared with us more on what Africa Data School, why they chose the path to address the data science gap and the challenge they have faced having to work amidst a pandemic. Here is the interview. Don’t forget to watch, share and subscribe to our channel.